Many members of a particular industry attend trade shows to re-connect with members of the industry, meet competitors, establish business contacts, and make potential sales. A successful trade show is all about planning and can determine leads and potential sales.
Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water. They are characterized by steep slopes, minimal vegetation, lack of a substantial regolith, and high drainage density.
Badlands is being billed as the third part in the Highway Quartet. It works as a stand alone too but centers on a character first introduced in the Highway. There is a thin plot thread from that book which will lead us to book 4, but Badlands is really a novel about the police department in a fracking boomtown in North Dakota that runs across a gang that wants to control drugs in the town.